Inside that chip is a cauli wanting to get out

Can there be such a thing as a healthy chip? Randy Blaun, a writer and self-proclaimed foodie living in New York, claims to have invented just that: french fries that have as many nutrients and as much fibre as a serving of broccoli.

Moreover - and this should be of profound interest to the millions following diets such as the high-protein, low-carbohydrate one proposed by Dr Robert Atkins - Ms Blaun's chips are low in carbohydrates. They have six to eight milligrams of carbohydrates a serving, compared with 20-plus in a serving of regular chips.

Cauliflower chips? Well, not just cauliflower. Also egg whites and calcium caseinate, which is derived from milk, and "just enough potato to make it potato-y".

Ms Blaun has been an Atkins-diet aficionado for a couple of decades. "But there is a hole on the plate in the Atkins diet," she said. "Potatoes are the side dish that everyone misses."

For the millions of followers of low-carbohydrate diets, potatoes are a no-no. They have a high glycemic index, meaning they quickly raise blood-sugar levels.

Low-carbohydrate bread substitutes, usually of soy and wheat gluten, abound. Ms Blaun hopes to be the first on the market with popular low-carbohydrate potato products, under the trademark Idaho Lite and ranging from twice-baked potatoes to batter for fried foods.

Ms Blaun is essentially trying to patent a recipe for a dough, made from a powder, which is then shaped and baked into potato-like form.

To mass-produce chips with her dough, Ms Blaun said, "you have to squirt it out of a little nozzle shaped like a chip, then you flash-fry it." But can any fried food really be healthy? Yes, says Ms Blaun, provided it is fried in canola oil.